Sleight Of Hand
by EveyHammond
Summary: Ficlet from Heyes POV: what was going through his mind before and after Danny Bilson got shot by Kid.   From end scenes of 'Smiler With A Gun'.  Darkish tone.  I like Heyes on the dark side...


**Sleight of Hand**

"_Sleight of hand: techniques used to manipulate objects;_

_the means used by someone to produce an effect."_

I catch up to Kid just outside the sheriff's office. "All right. What was that all about?"

"I don't know." The look on his face tells me he knows, all right. I keep my gaze on his face as he continues, "Could be I was thinking of pushing our smiling friend into a fight."

"What?" I put one hand on his back. "But you're not thinking that any more, right?" I hold him with my eyes, trying to gauge how far this anger's going to take him. After a second, he smiles at me. Never ceases to surprise me how quickly that poker face of his can change. "I guess not. 'Cause you know, Heyes… I'm not too sure I'd win."

I laugh and pat him on the back as we cross the street. I'm not too sure either. And it looks like neither of us will have to worry about finding out.

oooOOOooo

It's been a lousy week on top of a lousy couple of months. We're ten thousand dollars down, with nothing to show for all that work. Seth, an old man whose only mistake was being too trusting, is dead under a pile of rocks in the desert. Kid's not the only one who's going to have trouble letting that go.

There's a handful of poker chips in my pocket and I put them on the bar, thinking: _I'm going to walk out of this saloon and out of this town, and I'm going to shake its dust off my boots when I go._ The guy at the bar counts out my money. "Forty-two dollars, exactly."

"Thanks." I'm folding the money to put it away when a footstep sounds behind me.

"You leaving town, Joshua?"

I don't look round. I can tell, even without looking, that the son-of-a-bitch is still smiling. "That's right." I don't want to look at him, and I sure as hell don't want to give him any excuse to linger making small talk. "Learned a long time ago, when you got a losing hand you just toss it in." My voice sounds quiet and easy. Like it's not costing me every ounce of self control I got.

Of course, that's a mistake, because good ol' Danny thinks we're having a conversation. "And how does your friend Thaddeus feel about that?"

I put my hands flat on the bar to keep them still. "Well, you'll have to ask him that."

"Yeah, I just might do that." He answers in the same friendly tone, but under the words is a threat. And he knows that I know it. "Y'know, you I understand. You know how to lose." He's enjoying twisting the knife. Seeing just how far he can rub my nose in it. "I'm just, ah, not quite so sure about Thaddeus. How does he feel about losing? Huh?"

"I said: you'll have to ask him that."

"Yeah." He laughs and I finally look at him, because if there's one thing I've learned it's that when Danny laughs it means someone's going down. I look into that smiling face as he states his intention. "I will."

And that's when I do it. I turn to face him and tell him: "On second thought, Danny – don't ask him. Smartest thing for you to do is lay low for a while. We'll be ridin' out of here in ten minutes." I hold his gaze with my own, and I'm not smiling; and for a short while, neither is he. I turn and head out without saying another word.

oooOOOooo

Kid and me are securing our gear on the horses when Danny comes out of his saloon and calls from where he's standing in the street. "Hey – you got something to say to me?"

I know it's not me he's talking to and I don't say a word. Neither does Kid. Which pisses Danny somewhat so he comes a little closer and tries again. "Hey, Jones. I said, you got something to say to me?"

This time we both turn round and there's Danny leaning on a post like he owns it. All I say is, "Kid, don't." But he steps around me like I'm not even there and answers Danny.

"What's on your mind?"

"Well, I'll be happy to tell ya. I think you're leaving town in broad daylight 'cause you plan on coming back in the dark."

"Now, why would I do that?"

"Ahh, 'cause you're a small man with a big grudge. Except you haven't got guts enough to do anything about it… Except, maybe in the dark. Behind somebody's back."

The sheriff's come out of his office now and is getting himself a good look. He doesn't know what's going down here yet, but he's got a look on his face like he's trying to figure it out.

"You said all you got to say?" Kid sounds real uninterested.

"I don't hear you denyin' any of it. Y'know, I want to hear that. I want to hear what's on your mind. I want to hear what's on your mind now. Not in the dark. When nobody's lookin'."

"Well now, I'll tell you what's on my mind, is I'm gonna to get out of town. If that's all right with you." And Kid starts walking back to his horse. Only Danny doesn't like that. Not one bit.

"It's not all right. You ain't goin' anywhere." Danny's walked into the street till he's level with Kid, like a hound bird-dogging its quarry. They both stop, and off behind them the good folks of Matherville suddenly get the drop on what's happening and make themselves scarce. Can't blame them: who wants to be a witness… Or an unlucky bystander.

Now it's real quiet. Just Danny and my partner standing there in the roadway; me still by our horses; and the sheriff trying to decide if today's the day he's going to step into the middle of something. Which he isn't.

"Well, I can't stand here all day, Danny. Now I'm gonna go get on my horse; and I'm gonna leave. Now." The way Kid states this, that's how it's going to happen. He even starts to turn away. He acts that confident.

But Kid and I both know that when you turn your back on Danny, that's when he makes his move. So when he goes for his gun and my partner beats him to it the only one surprised is the sheriff. And maybe Danny, who knows. The shot hits him in the chest and he goes down backwards into the dust, which is when I finally let out the breath I don't realise I've been holding for, oh, a few hundred years. And I could swear the last thing Danny does, lying there dying in the street, is let out a laugh. Before he quits laughing for good.

Kid and I walk slowly to where Danny lies, as the good townsfolk reappear from where they've been keeping their heads down to get themselves an eyeful of the latest bit of bad news to grace their burg. One look is enough for both of us, but as we turn away the sheriff falls into step beside us like a bad smell.

"Well, you were watching. He started it, didn't he." Kid sounds like he can handle things, but I make sure I stay right there. Just in case an argument brews up.

"Well, it, uh… It looked that way to me. But it sure is a coincidence that you were asking about that just an hour ago." I keep my gaze on the sheriff: he's going to have to do better than that. If there was one thing me and Kid learned early on, it was that lawmen are generally ten percent on top of things and ninety percent bluff. And this one… I'd say five percent on top of things. And that's being generous.

"That's exactly what it was, sheriff. A coincidence." Kid doesn't say one word more, but after a beat he turns his eyes to me. You'd have to know him as well as I do, to see through that calm expression. There's a man lying dead in the street who he just put there. And however much Danny deserved it, when Kid lets out a slow breath I see his shoulders fall a little under the weight of a life taken.

oooOOOooo

It takes a while before we can leave, what with a dead man needing to be cleared away and all. But after the sheriff works out that there's really nothing else he can say that he hasn't said already, we finally get on our horses and head into the street. We ride right on over the spot where Danny dropped, and neither one of us looks down.

"Kid… Now I know why you talked to the sheriff. You had a hunch Danny was going to challenge you, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I guess that what it was, Heyes – a hunch. It sure wasn't a hope. I think Danny could've outshot me easy shooting at a target. Maybe a plate. But I got lucky. He was shootin' at a target that could shoot back. I guess that made the difference."

We quit talking and ride on out of town, which suits me fine. I don't want to talk about it and I know Kid doesn't either. I know from the look on his face he's trying to make his peace with what he's done, but that's a hard road not easily travelled. However much water has flowed under the bridge since, we were both raised right: _Thou shalt not kill_ doesn't rub out just like that, when the first folks who taught it you loved you.

And what he doesn't know is, he didn't kill Danny Bilson. Sure, he fired the shot. But someone else put Danny on the street to start the play. Someone so good with words and playing people, he can make a man walk right into his own death. Someone who knew just what to say to make Danny do the exact opposite.

_- Smartest thing for you to do is lay low for a while. We'll be ridin' out of here in ten minutes._

And there he was, five minutes later, out in the street. Simple.

_- Y'know, you I understand. You know how to lose._

Yeah. That's me. A real sore loser. But you know what, Danny? Think I had the last laugh.


End file.
